Klebanov hails LUKoil and Russia's 1st Baltic oil drilling platform

LUKoil's unique approach to taking oil from the Kravtsovsk (D6) drill site on Russia's part of the Baltic Sea shelf shows the company's extraordinary potential, Ilya Klebanov, President Putin's representative in the Northwest Region, declared at a press conference here on Tuesday, a Rosbalt correspondent reported.

Klebanov, along with LUKoil President Vagit Alekperov and several Russian State Duma deputies, arrived here Tuesday for the formal unveiling of an ice-proof oil-drilling platform built by LUKoil-Kaliningradmorneft. As it turned out, bad weather kept them from flying to the platform itself, which is 22.5 kilometers offshore in the Baltic. Klebanov said the project, at a cost of USD 257 million, comprises not only the first Russian drilling platform in the Baltic but also increased refinery capacity and a deepening of the Kaliningrad Sea Terminal. 'This represents a significant improvement in the infrastructure of the region, in the region's economy and its export potential,' the president's emissary declared.

Background: Drill site D6, with reserves of 10 million tonnes of oil, is expected to yield 650,000 tonnes of oil a year. The oil will be carried from the drill site by undersea pipeline to a collecting point on the shore from where it will be sent to the Izhevsk oil terminal for loading onto tankers for export.